International legal principles applicable to climate change

Abstract:

Climate change is change in the world’s temperatures, precipitation and wind that differ
significantly from previous conditions and are seen to induce or bring about a change in the
ecosystem and socio-economic activities. The UNFCCC defines climate change as “change
of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the
composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability
observed over comparable time periods”.The international concerns are that increased concentrations of greenhouse gas emissions
such as carbon dioxide are changing climate in a way that is detrimental to our social and
economic well being. Human activities have increased greenhouse gas emissions drastically
since the industrial revolution by 31%. The impact this would have on the environment
would include a rise in sea levels, causing loss of coastlines worldwide of which small island
states are more at risk. Inhabitants of these coastline areas would in turn be vulnerable to
floods and would eventually be forced to migrate creating yet another problem in
international law what has come to be termed climate change refugees. The risk of flooding
due to climate change is not limited to coastline areas alone incidents of flooding have been
experienced on main lands in several states. According to UNEP half of the world’s
population, i.e. 3billion, live in coastal areas. The catastrophic effects of climate change
tend to have ripple effects. While climate change originated as an environmental problem it
now impact on everyday aspects of human life with implications on international economy,
public health, social issues such as migration and loss of livelihood and ultimately
threatening peace and security.